Business is booming for Wyoming fireworks retailers

EVANSTON, Wyo. – As we get closer to the Fourth of July, business near the Utah-Wyoming border is picking up.

Evanston, Wyo., fireworks distributors say business is booming in the border town, and a lot of their customers are from Utah.

“It’s going to be jam packed from 8 am to 1 am. It just gets busier and busier. We live for it,” said Courtney Morgan, who works at Pyro City. “Utah is definitely one of our favorite states.”

People often go across the state line to bring back fireworks that are illegal in Utah. But Morgan says they warn customers what they should and shouldn’t bring home.

“That’s part of our training. We go through, ‘This is Utah legal, this is not Utah legal. This is what they can have,'” Morgan said. “Some people from Utah don’t even know their laws have changed so they come in and we say you can have all of this, but lets stay away from that.”

Utahns are encouraged to check city and county ordinances for a detailed list of what fireworks are legal and where it’s legal to ignite them. Even for legal fireworks in legal locations, safety is important.

“When you go up to light a firework, you want to come at it from an angle never directly in front of it where the sparks are going to come out and you want to lean away as you light it,” Morgan said.

Safety glasses are encouraged and a fire extinguisher, bucket of water or hose are important to help stop fires from growing.

Pyro City expects business to explode as the holiday approaches, but they say they’re ready for anything.

“When it comes closer to the Fourth, we will have anywhere from 18 to 20 workers, just going around. Because we are constantly having to restock our store,” Morgan said.